Flexible (or “flex”) circuit electronic packages typically include one or more flex circuit members each including at least one thin layer of dielectric (e.g., polyimide) with a pattern of conductors (e.g., copper pads) positioned on a surface thereof designed to accommodate a semiconductor chip (also referred to herein simply as a chip) thereon which is electrically connected to the conductors (e.g., using solder balls) and thereby to other circuitry of the flex circuit which is also coupled to the conductors. This flex circuit in turn is designed for being mounted on another circuitized substrate, typically in the form of a multilayered printed circuit board (also referred to herein simply as a PCB). The printed circuit board in turn typically includes a dielectric substrate (e.g., organic resin material reinforced by fibers, also referred to in the PCB industry as “FR-4” material) and multiple layers of electrically conductive circuit traces as well as ground and power layers. Many flex circuit electronic packages utilize solder balls to also couple the flex circuit to the respective conductors of the host PCB.
When positioning and electrically coupling a chip to a flex circuit using solder balls, some amount of flex circuit warping will occur, which is undesirable from both manufacturing and product functioning standpoints. This warping occurs because the flex circuit is of an extremely thin (e.g., sometimes having an overall thickness of only about 8 mils (a mil being a thousandths of an inch) to 25 mils) polymer dielectric material, and is thus very susceptible to bending from the heat generated during the solder reflow process required to form the chip-flex bond. Various attempts, some defined in greater detail below, have been undertaken to prevent such warping. One particular example of such an attempt is to use what is referred to as a “stiffener” or “lid”, which are typically of rigid metal construction and usually secured to the flexible circuit at some location (e.g., about the outer periphery). Adding these members to such packages also often necessitates usage of additional processing fixtures, thereby adding to the cost of the final package. As flexible circuits become thinner and thus more flexible (due to increased demands for miniaturization in today's products using these packages), it is desirable to increase planarity of the flexible circuit without the need for such added members and processing.
As understood from the following, the present invention represents what is believed is a significant improvement in approaches to assuring effective planarity of the flex circuit relative to the coupled chip, and thus also relative to a host PCB to which it is to be coupled. Such planarity is essential to assuring a sound connection between the many conductors of the flex and those of the underlying host PCB when solder ball connections are being used, especially when highly dense patterns of such conductors are utilized. In some of today's patterns, for example, the conductors of a flex circuit and those of the accommodating PCB may be so closely spaced that the center-to-center spacings between such conductors is only from about 12 mils to 50 mils. As defined herein, the invention is able to provide such planarity without the need for a “stiffener” or “lid” as required in many prior art products.
The following U.S. Patents describe various approaches to providing desired spacings between electronic package and the like structures. The citation of these patents is not an admission that any are prior art to the present invention.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,045,921, there is described an electronic pad array carrier device for mounting on a printed circuit board or flex circuit substrate, the device having a thin, flexible “tape” substrate having a plurality of traces. The substrate may be polyimide or other material that can withstand relatively large lateral mechanical displacement. An integrated circuit die is mounted in proximity with or on the substrate and electrical connections between the integrated circuit chip and the traces are made by any conventional means. The substrate traces are provided at their outer ends with solder balls or pads for making connections to the PCB. A package body covers the die, which body may be optionally used to stand off the package a set distance from the PCB so that the solder balls will form the proper concave structure. Alternatively, a carrier structure may be provided around the periphery of the substrate to add rigidity during handling, testing and mounting, but which may also provide the stand-off function. The thin, flexible substrate can absorb a relatively large lateral or even vertical mechanical displacement over a rather large package area. The substrate may be optionally transparent or translucent to permit inspection of the bonds after mounting to the PCB. The PCB or flex circuit may also be transparent or translucent for bond inspection purposes. The solder pads or balls may be joined to a via through the substrate at least partially filled with electrically conductive material to permit back side testing of the carrier before or after mounting of the package to the PCB. Additionally, a heat sink structure may be directly bonded to the die in the pad array carrier IC device.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,170,931, there is described a method and apparatus for mounting a flexible film semiconductor chip carrier on a second level electronic package. The resulting electronic packaging structure includes electrically conductive spacers, such as solder balls or solder coated copper balls, which electrically interconnect outer lead bonding pads on the flexible film semiconductor chip carrier and corresponding bonding pads on the second level electronic package, and which physically support the flexible film of the semiconductor chip carrier substantially in a plane above the surface of the second level electronic package. This electronic packaging structure is made using a special assembly fixture comprising a base plate, a pressure insert with a resilient member, and a top plate. The flexible film semiconductor chip carrier with the spacers attached thereto is placed over the resilient member of the pressure insert which is clamped together with the second level electronic package between the top and base plates. Then, this assembly is heated to reflow the solder of the spacers, and the assembly fixture is disassembled, leaving the flexible film semiconductor chip carrier mounted on the second level electronic package with the flexible film of the carrier having a planar geometry as desired. The spacers may be attached to the flexible film semiconductor chip carrier using a special template having a pattern of openings corresponding to the pattern of outer lead bonding pads on the flexible film semiconductor chip carrier.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,562,517, there is described a spacer for use in a field emission device which comprises a comb-like structure having a plurality of elongated filaments joined to a support member. The filaments, which may be glass, are positioned longitudinally in a single layer between the facing surfaces of the anode structure and the electron emitting structure. Support member is positioned entirely outside the active regions of anode structure and emitting structure. The spacer provides voltage isolation between the anode and cathode structures, and also provides standoff of the mechanical forces of vacuum within the assembly.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,673,479, and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,896,651 (a divisional of U.S. Pat. No. 5,673,479), there is described a Tape-Automated-Bonding (TAB) package which includes a resilient polyimide layer that supports a metal lead-frame. A microelectronic circuit die is mounted in a hole in the polyimide layer and interconnected with inner leads of the lead-frame. The TAB package is adhered to a support member having spacers that abut against the surface of a printed circuit board on which the package is to be mounted and provide a predetermined spacing between the lead-frame and the surface. Outer leads that protrude from the lead-frame are bent into a shape so as extend, in their free state, toward the surface at least as far as the spacers. The package and support member assembly is placed on the PCB surface, and the combination of the weight of the assembly, the resilience of the leads and the preset standoff height enable the leads to resiliently deform so that the spacers abut against the surface and the leads conformably engage with the surface for soldering or other ohmic connection to conjugate bonding pads on the surface. The support member can be formed with lead retainers around which the leads extend to form loops that resiliently and conformably engage with the surface as the assembly is lowered thereon. The support member maintains co-planarity, adds weight to the package, pre-sets the standoff to protect the formed outer leads during surface mounting and enables the package to be shipped without a separate carrier.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,796,590, and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,930,889 (a divisional of U.S. Pat. No. 5,796,590), there is described an apparatus and method for surface-mounting ball grid array integrated circuit (IC) devices to printed circuit boards. A thin single- or multi-layer sheet of nonconductive material having a plurality of apertures corresponding to the leads of the IC device to be mounted is interposed between the ball grid array and the circuit board prior to solder processing to facilitate solder application, device alignment, and solder retention. An assembly guide is located on the top surface of the aid to assist in the orientation and placement of the IC device during assembly. In a further aspect, the disclosed assembly aid helps compensate for non-planarity in the IC device array or circuit board, and maintains a minimum standoff distance between the IC package and the circuit board to preclude undue solder joint deformation. The assembly aid also allows for reworking of the surface mount by facilitating localized placement of the solder prior to reflow processing without masking or other additional processing steps.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,805,427, there is described a surface mount package to encapsulate one or more semiconductor devices which has a standoff that maintains the thickness of solder columns bonding the package to an external circuit. The standoff either extends over or circumscribes a central portion of the package base. To enhance the thermal performance of the standoff, a solderable layer enhances soldering of the standoff to the external circuit. In alternative embodiments, the standoff contains a flange having a plurality of apertures useful for either mechanically locking an adhesive or for enabling irradiation of an adhesive by a light source. The standoff may contain protrusions for alignment, strength or circuit routing.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,152,756, there is described a socket for interconnecting an electronic package with a circuit board which comprises a base, a cover slidably attached to the base, and supporting means downwardly extending from the base. The base comprises a pair of extension plates diagonally extending there-from. The supporting means in the form of a pair of standoffs is formed on the respective extension plates. Since each standoff has a height slightly smaller than that of solder balls formed on a lower surface of the base, the standoffs rest on the circuit board after the socket is soldered thereto. By such a design, the external force employed to actuate the cover to slide along the base is transferred from the base to the standoffs. Hence, deformation of the base and damage to the solder joint are obviated to ensure a reliable connection between the PGA package and the circuit board.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,411,513, there is described a compliant, thermally conductive interface device for use between two surfaces, such as a component and a heat sink surface, that can accommodate a range of gap distances and angular misalignment (tilt). The device is comprised of a plurality of foils stacked in a densely-packed, nested fashion. The foils may extend between the surfaces. Embodiments are described for use with flat, two-dimensionally curved, three-dimensionally curved, and cylindrical surfaces (such as heat pipes). Preferably, the foils are pre-formed in a shape corresponding to their fully compressed shape in a device and stacked directly against each other. After bonding the plurality of adjacent foil proximal edges together and the plurality of adjacent foil distal edges together, the assembly is extended to produce interstitial separation distances between adjacent foil flexing sections to accommodate future flexing and the height to accommodate future compression and tilt.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,414,849, there is described a low stress, low profile, cavity down wire bond or flip-chip BGA package which is formed by injection molding or thermosetting of liquid crystal plastic (LCP) to form a die carrier including a polymer solder grid array (PSGA) of standoff posts formed during molding of the die carrier. The standoff posts are coated with copper during plating of the die carrier, on the surfaces of which conductive traces are etched from the standoff posts into a die cavity, including on the sidewalls of the die cavity, to wire bond sites or small solderable areas at the bottom of the cavity. After mounting of a wire bond or flip-chip integrated circuit die within the die cavity of the die carrier, the packaged integrated circuit is mounted on a main printed circuit board substrate utilizing conductive paste to electrically connect the standoff posts to conductive solderable areas on the main PCB substrate. The high aspect ratio and/or large height of the plated standoff posts reduces stress on the solder joints and, combined with the flexibility of the LCP die carrier, improves solder joint reliability after reflow and during operation.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,444,563, there is described a ball grid array or chip scale package integrated circuit which is manufactured by first identifying the most unreliable solder ball joints in the IC. These worst case joints, or joints in the vicinity of the worst case joints, are changed in pad dimension and exposed to more ball/bump conductive material than the other more robust joints in the IC to create a ball on a larger pad that is larger than the normal sized ball. The larger balls are formed by placing multiple smaller balls together on a single pad to form one larger ball during a reflow operation. The larger ball improves the overall IC reliability by improving the reliability of the weakest joints in the IC design. In addition, the standoff of both the larger balls and the smaller balls are engineered to be substantially equal.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,560,122, there is described an integrated circuit chip package which includes an integrated circuit chip that is mounted on a substrate by a reflow process and by a plurality of solder bumps. At least one standoff is located between the circuit chip and the substrate to maintain a distance between the circuit chip and the substrate during the reflow process. A mold compound is used for under-filling air gaps between the chip and the substrate. The integrated circuit chip package is formed by placing the chip and substrate within a mold cavity and pressing a transfer mold compound into the mold cavity. Air spaces between the integrated circuit chip and the substrate are under-filled by the mold compound as it is pressed in between the integrated circuit chip, the standoffs and the substrate. Air is allowed to escape from between the chip and the substrate during the under-filling through a vent which extends through the substrate. The under-filling material may also be used to encapsulate the chip at the same time that under-filling is performed.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,631,078, there is described a heat dissipating flexible or resilient standoff which is mechanically clamped between an electronic module and substrate, such as, PCB. The clamping arrangement comprises a heat sink compressing a thermally conductive flexible interface pad over the upper surface of the electronic module by way of mechanical linkage to the PCB. The heat dissipating flexible standoff provides a force opposing the compression force to thereby reduce stress on solder ball connections between electronic module and PCB. Thermally conductive flexible standoffs in the form of spring arrangements, such as a wire mesh, act to provide heat dissipation by both thermal conduction and thermal convection. A thermally conductive flexible polymer pad and a layer of porous metal foam may also act as thermally conductive standoffs.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,986,454, there is described an electronic package which includes a circuit board having a substrate and circuitry and a surface mount device having a contact terminal. A mounting pad is formed on the circuit board. The electronic package also includes a solder joint connecting the contact terminal of the surface mount device to the mounting pad on the circuit board. The solder joint includes a reflowable solder and a plurality of stand-off members. The stand-off members provide a separation distance (H) between the circuit board and surface mount device in the range of about 0.01 mm to 0.10 mm.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,118,940, there is described an electronic package having a controlled standoff height between a surface mount device and a circuit board. The electronic package includes a circuit board having a substrate and circuitry including mounting pads and a surface mount device having circuitry and contact terminals. Solder joints connect the contact terminals of the surface mount device to the mounting pads on the circuit board. A dielectric under-fill is disposed between the circuit board and the surface mount device, and a plurality of standoff members are disposed in the under-fill material to provide a separation distance between the circuit board and the surface mount device.
As defined herein, the present invention is able to assure effective planarity of the flex circuit relative to the chip bonded thereto (and to other components of the package, if necessary). The invention is able to accomplish this without using a stiffener or similar member which has heretofore been essential in many electronic packages, such a stiffener being bonded directly to the flex (e.g., along a large portion of the outer periphery). Still further, the invention is able to accomplish this without using complex and costly elements and/or processing equipment, thus allowing the manufacturer of the invention to pass on cost savings to the package consumer. It is believed that such a package will represent a significant advancement in the art.